put a bug in someone's ear

present singular third person puts a bug in someone's ear · participle present putting a bug in someone's ear

1. idiomaticinformalTo make a small suggestion or give a hint that causes the listener to act.

   You've been putting a nasty bug in Sheriff Doogie's ear, haven't you? Or maybe he put a bug in your ear. I understand the two of you are thick as thieves.

   2014, Laura Childs, Scorched Eggs

   3 more examples

   All in all, the preparation of Seuils had put a nasty bug in my ear that was to bear all its fruit only ten years later—if bugs can bear fruit—and not without intermediate phases.

   2005, Gärard Genette, Essays in Aesthetics, page 13

   Ginger Rogers had definitely put a bug in Pan's ear about the movies for, after he was fired from Top Speed, Hermes decided to try his luck earning a living on the West Coast.

   2012, John Franceschina, Hermes Pan: The Man Who Danced with Fred Astaire, page 33

   He was so insistent on this point that a friend she mentioned it to put a bug in her ear. Why not head home without calling, just to see what was really going on.

   2014, Charles Lachman, Footsteps in the Snow, page 246